Animal Stories

Gr 9 Up–Six interconnected vignettes tell a strange and fascinating tale of interactions between people and animals. Mysterious letters delivered by messenger pigeon in the first chapter lead to further surreal mysteries at sea, in a pet shop, and in the daily routine of a dog named President Ted. The protagonists include white and brown-skinned children and adults maneuvering through geometric layouts and broadly framed settings. Narration maintains a humorous tension as progressively stranger plots and connections between stories emerge. Each chapter’s unique oddity raises the stakes for the next to keep up the weirdness and provide another clue toward the bigger picture connecting them all. A reenacting of the biblical Garden of Eden includes brief frontal nudity of a man and woman, played for a referential laugh as they are arrested for indecent exposure. Faces are static and interchangeable, which is negligible compared to the diorama-esque quality of many pages.